Distribution and abundance of canopy trees in floodplain forests of the Wisconsin River 1999 - 2001

The Wisconsin River Floodplain Project aimed to identify landscape indicators that are well correlated with specific aspects of ecological function. This is a crucial research need requiring an integrated approach that combines landscape monitoring with field studies. Large river-floodplain systems are among the most diverse and dynamic landscapes in the US, providing many important societal values, but relatively little effort has been devoted to development and testing of landscape indicators for these systems. We developed and tested ecological indicators for large river-floodplain landscapes along reaches of the Wisconsin River to determine which landscape metrics are most useful for monitoring population, community and ecosystem processes in large river-floodplain landscapes. Spatially extensive field sampling was combined with landscape analysis in nine reaches of the Wisconsin River sampling to quantify the ability of landscape indicators to predict ecological variables over broad scales. Landscape indicators were evaluated by their utility for detecting changes in the structure and function of the Wisconsin River floodplain landscape that were related to modification of the natural flow regime, historical land use, and current land-use patterns. Our field studies were concentrated in floodplain forest in nine 12 to 20-km reaches along the lower 400 km of the Wisconsin River.威斯康星河泛滥平原项目（Wisconsin River Floodplain Project）旨在识别与生态功能特定方面高度相关的景观指标。这是一项亟需整合景观监测与野外研究的关键研究需求。大型河泛平原系统是美国最多样化且最具动态性的景观类型之一，承载诸多重要的社会价值，但针对此类系统开发与验证景观指标的相关研究仍相对匮乏。我们针对威斯康星河沿线的大型河泛平原景观开发并验证了生态指标，以明确哪些景观指标最适用于监测大型河泛平原景观中的种群、群落与生态系统过程。研究结合了大范围野外采样与景观分析，选取威斯康星河的9个河段开展采样工作，以量化景观指标在大尺度范围内预测生态变量的能力。我们通过景观指标在检测威斯康星河泛滥平原景观结构与功能变化方面的适用性对其进行评估，这些变化与自然水文情势改变、历史土地利用及当前土地利用模式密切相关。本研究的野外工作集中于威斯康星河下游400公里沿线的9段12至20公里的泛滥平原森林中。